Pini Dunner
ARTICLES BY: Pini Dunner
The Torah Teaches That Feeling No Pain Is a Weakness
You will be excused for not having heard of the latest Bollywood movie sensation, a film called Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota, which translates as...
The Story of Purim: A Tale of Two Choices
The story of Purim, as recorded in Megillat Esther, is a very unusual religious scripture. Many aspects of the narrative make no sense when considered from a...
The Torah Requires Holding Leaders Accountable
In a Washington Post interview this past Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed unequivocally that she is “not for impeachment” of President Donald Trump. Despite a...
Why Human Beings Are Always a Work in Progress
On April 12, 1945, the Russian-born American artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff began work on a portrait at a sleepy private vacation retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia, known...
How We Can Truly Hear God’s Words
In October 2010, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a fascinating article about the remarkable linguistic synergy that exists between couples who are...
The Beauty of Tefillin
A few weeks ago, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, our youngest son Uri put his tefillin on for the first time. In May, he will...
Once a High Priest or President, Always a High Priest or President
On December 5, 2018, four former US presidents and their wives attended the funeral of George H.W. Bush in Washington DC -- Jimmy and Rosalynn...
Charity Is in Your Heart, Not Your Wallet
Some years ago, I came across an article that began with this rather startling statement: “If you raise money for charity, you're probably oppressing someone.” The...
Sight and the Beauty of Torah
I have just returned from Israel, where I spent an exhilarating week with my family. During our short visit, we visited many places and met a...
How Shabbat Observance Has Preserved the Jewish People
Sometime in the 18th century, a group of Russian-Orthodox Christians revolted against the strict hierarchical religious environment of Russian-Orthodoxy and embraced Judaism -- or at...
Why Israel Is Not Enough: Jews Must Now Seek Spiritual Redemption
Earlier this week, in the final lecture of this season’s Jewish History series at my synagogue in Beverly Hills, I recalled the life of Rabbi...
Immigration, Trump and Pharaoh
As the row over President Trump’s border wall gathers pace, with thousands of Central Americans camped in Tijuana on the Mexican-American border, and the president...
An Education in Jewish Education
You will probably have heard about the controversy raging over general studies at Orthodox Jewish day schools that has erupted in New York over the...
The Story of Joseph, the Holocaust, and Why Forgiveness Requires Closure
In 1976, the famous Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal published a small book called The Sunflower. The book was inspired by a troubling and...
